Star Wars - Fires of Rebellion

The chase of Tana Youth through the halls of the Tierfon Outpost had captured the attention of several of the new armed thugs, and a half-dozen of them arrived at the outpost opening just in time to see Buurski with his arm outstretched towards the ledge just as Tana Youth toppled over the side. The others who had been in pursuit, Crix Vane and Kip Salvo, appeared to be standing idly by as Buurski, presumably, pushed the Chief Physician over the edge to his death. Before the Rebels could have a chance to explain themselves the thugs raised their weapons and ordered them to “halt!”. Salvo was having no part of taking orders from these intruders, and he charged directly at the cluster of guards and one of them fired a shot at the charging rebel. Although Kip was able to reflect the blast, the impact was so hard that it sent him, too, pummeling off the ledge and down to the pits below. The action happened so quickly that there was nothing Buurski or Crix could do to either stop Kip from attacking or keep him from flying over the side from the impact.

Buurski and Crix had to remain focused on the thugs since they showed no signs that they had any intentions of letting the rebels leave the engagement still breathing. They were outnumbered and outgunned, and the unmistakable sound of footprints of more guards could be heard approaching them from the hall. Crix tossed a grenade into the cluster of thugs with deadly precision, knocking all six of them from their feet and temporarily obstructing their vision, and Buurski seized the opportunity by grasping Crix by his collar and acrobatically hoisting both Crix and himself from the platform up to the top deck. By the time the guards regained their awareness the rebels were gone and they had no clue where they had gone.

Kip found himself hurling towards the canyon below just as an X-Wing on a training run was approaching. He was able to reach out and grab on to a wing right as it passed by, saving himself from certain death… although he was now hanging for life from an X-Wing with the pilot unaware of his presence so he was not out of the woods yet. Kip tried to get the astromech droid to relay a landing request to the pilot however the droid, not entirely trusting the man who fell from the sky and latched on to the ship, only guided the X-Wing close enough to the Outpost that Kip could fall without injuring himself, which he did. Upon landing atop the Outpost he made a bee-line towards the elevator to head back down below to rendezvous with the rest of the team.

When the elevator doors opened below deck Kip is shocked to find the Head Engineer, Randal Spar, being beaten by a couple thugs and no one doing anything about it. Without hesitation Kip killed both of the thugs and saves Spar from the onslaught. He asked Spar where the rest of the Engineers were and sends Spar to get them, telling him it was time they took the Outpost back. Spar also informed Kip that something had interfered with the water main at the base of the Outpost, and Kip knew this was likely the Tier’kon answering their call and arriving to offer assistance. Finally some good news.

On the other side of the base, Kos decided it was time to exit Beillaine’s office and comms to the group that he is heading their way but is abruptly cut short when he finds himself confronted by Dyser, Dyser’s sidekick, and a host of thugs who had gone to check on the Major. Dyser wasted no time asking questions and reach for his blaster but Kos instinctively binded him and Dyser found himself unable to move. Dyser’s unassuming sidekick was able to move, however, and he drew large blaster and fired a shot right at Kos’ face, a direct hit which essentially disintegrated Kos’ other eye, leaving the Gand blind and withering in pain. His only hope was that help would make its way there, and quickly.

Buurski and Crix had just entered the lower level of the Outpost through the emergency stairwell when they received the strange message from Kos. As they entered the main area they saw the Head of Security, Lorn Tull, and the rest of his Security Team in a firefight with a host of thugs and Buurski was torn between his sense of duty to protect the rebels and the sinking feeling he had that something had gone wrong with Kos. He made the difficult decision to leave the Security Team to battle it out for themselves and ran off to where Beillaine’s office was, with Crix following him there. As he turned the corner he was aghast to find a bloodied and beaten Kos on the ground surrounded by Dyser and a half-dozen thugs. Buurski immediately comm’d over to Kip and told him they were going to need his help and then sprung down the hall to defend Kos. He gravely wounded two of the thugs and then took a defensive stance over Kos to shield them from the ensuing counter-attacks. As Buurski defensively ducked and weaved to avoid the blows, a host of thugs arrived from the other direction, all of them carrying Therm-Axes similar to Buurski’s. Crix lobbed a grenade into the cluster of oncoming thugs and the blast impeded the progress of the thugs, momentarily, while also inciting the fire alarms which triggered the sprinkler system, causing all of the Therm-Axes to de-ignite, including Buurski’s.

Suddenly, the booming voice of Major Beillaine could be heard from around the corner… ordering the mob to cease and explain what was going on. This was particularly confusing for Kos, Buurski, and Crix since they all knew Beillaine to be dead and his body in his office. Beillaine informed the group that they were needed above deck as quickly as possible because there was a bomb threat and they needed to identify the location of the device before it was set off. Despite Dyser’s protests, he eventually took his squad to inspect the situation, leaving three of his thugs behind to escort the now-handcuffed Buurski, Crix, and Kos to their holding cells to await his return for punishment. As soon as the group departed the figure of Beillaine appeared from around the corner… however, something was off… and suddenly the robust form reshaped in to that of Kip, and just as suddenly deadly bolts of lightning burst from his fingertips causing the three thugs to fall to the ground and convulse until the only thing still causing their bodies to move was the surges of lightning coursing through their lifeless forms.

Kip made his way to his teammates who were still a bit in shock from what had just transpired, and he released their shackles. They all re-acquired their weapons and gear off the bodies around them and Buurski reached down and grabbed an additional Therm-Axe from the clutches of one of the bodies, and the Team made their way back towards the heart of the base.

After Buurski, Crix Vane, Kip Salvo, and M@-33 watched Security escort Kos, the Tarnished away, they immediately made their way over to speak with Lorn Tull. Much had changed at the Tierfon Outpost since they left just a few weeks ago, and they needed to get to the bottom of it.

Lorn Tull informed the team that Major Beillaine had brought on 300 new recruits during their absence, but not the usual sort of Rebel recruits they were familiar with at the Outpost. These recruits were all large brutes, and 200 of them were strictly security. The other 100 recruits were sent out to reinforce the “scouting” missions (which the group knew to really be mining missions to gather more of the substance the Tera’Kan’s called “fala”). They asked who the leader was of the new recruits and, while Tull was not positive if there was actually a leader, he did say they all seemed to follow the orders of a man named Dorian Dyser.

The group heard over the intercoms that all personnel were to report above ground. The Team knew this was for all to witness the punishment that was to be rendered upon Kos. They all made their way up separately as they witnessed Kos being strapped to a post, his naked back exposed outward. Major Beillaine was nowhere to be seen, however, as Kos’ sentencing was announced through the intercom as Beillaine apparently watched from his quarters.

The punisher was even more burly than the brutish recruits that they had been seeing throughout the outpost. He flexed his arms and back, lashed the air a couple times, then immediately turned towards Kos and barely paused before rapidly administering the first 3 lashes on Kos’ back. The wounds from the lashes would have been vicious even under normal circumstances, however Kos made the wounds even more ghastly through his subtle use of the Force by increasing the visual effect of the lashes on his back. Flesh peeled away and blood poured down his back and on to the ground around him as he remained firm and didn’t utter a sound.

CRACKCRACKCRACK… three more lashes shredded his flesh and muscle and blood began to spray outward and even reach the feet of the crowd, who were at least 10 feet away from the post. Several onlookers began to turn away, while others were in disbelief of the horror they were witnessing. Still, Kos made no sound. He gave no satisfaction the punisher or to Beillaine.

Unease rippled through the crowd as Kip snaked his way to a group of thugs, seemingly focused around one man in particular: Dorian Dyser. Kip engaged in conversation and, when Dyser commented that Kos would not last all 15 lashes Kip proposes a wager that Kos would. Dyser laughs and takes the bet as they are interrupted by 3 more thunderous successive cracks of the whip. This time Kos let out a grunt, despite himself… and Buurski could take it no longer. Buurski leapt upon the stage and grabbed the wrist of the punisher before he could swing down with the whip again. Beillaine ordered Buurski to release the man’s arm, lest he be the next one strapped to the post and Kos whispered to Buurski to let the punishment continue… that he needed to do this. Buurski agrees, but demands that Beillaine at least show himself for the conclusion of the punishment and Beillaine obliges… but not until Dyser took the stage and ripped the whip away from the punisher.

Dyser, with his back towards Kos, smiles then rapidly turned and released a torrent of lashes… he reached 15, but then he kept going! 16… 17… then suddenly Kos turned and reached out with his maimed arm and the white ghostly appearance of an arm protruded from the stump where his arm had been and grabbed the whip from Dyser. Kos then turned the whip back on Dyser, mercilessly whipping him into submission.

Amidst the confusion, Beillaine had made his way back below deck and to his quarters. An enraged Kos ripped himself free and made his way down to Beillaine’s office… only to find himself confronted by a half dozen armed brutes guarding the entryway to Beillaine’s door. Kos attacked without a moment of hesitation, wielding his Lightsaber pike and flowing through the Force to make his way through the Guards. One-by-one they feel, but it was not without a cost as Kos took blow after blow, weakening with each advance he made from his injuries. One Brute managed to land a critical strike on Kos right before his own demise, resulting in permanent damage and the loss of one of Kos’ eyes.

While this was going on, M@ notified Buurski that the Imperials had pinged the transmitter the Rebels had bugged. They made their way over to the device and M@ was able to decipher the message, which was coordinates of the Tierfron Post being broadcast to the Empire. M@ tried to intercept the message to change the coordinates but was unable to do so. With the Empire now on its way, Buurski knew they were going to need reinforcements so he sent a message to the Tier’kon with his Tailring. While analyzing the transceiver, M@ was able to determine that the message had been sent to the Empire by the Chief Physician, Tana Youth. They made their way below to confront him.

Kos hacked through Beillaine’s keypad access to his quarters, and also sabotaged it so that it could not be easily opened again from the outside… and entered the room. He immediately binded Beillaine using the Force and Beillaine just stood there in the middle of the room unable to move. Hatred burned within Kos. Kos looked around the room and found a used spoon on Beillaine’s desk and grabbed it, then used it to remove one of Beillaine’s eyes. An eye for an eye. Beillaine begged and pleaded for his life, for Kos to stop this, but Kos responded by raising his arm and holding it towards Beillaine… and then he released he destructive powers of the Force upon Beillaine, then removed the bind so that Beillaine’s lifeless body could slump to the floor. Kos opened his comms and broadcasted a single line to the rest of the Team: “Beillaine is dead”, and he then closed the line. Kos approached Beillaine’s workstation and sent a message to the Rebel fleet to let them know what was going on and what had happened at the Tierfon Outpost. He requested immediate assistance from the Rebellion to take back the outpost from the thugs. While in the system he was able to transfer 20,000 credits out of Beillaine’s account and in to his own.

Buurski linked back up with Salvo and they, along with M@ and Crix, made their way to Tana Youth’s location. Youth saw them approaching and immediately fled. Buurski gave chase through the base and closed in on the Physician, and finally had him corned when they hit a dead end at the opening of the Outpost that lead to a deep dropoff down the side of the cliff. The Physician clearly was more afraid of the Empire than the Rebels before him because he decided to jump rather than risk capture. Buurski was too far away to stop him but tried to catch him using the Force, but when he reached out the only thing he could latch on to was the Physician’s belt… which unfastened and remained suspended in the air while the Physician plummeted to his doom in the canyon below.

The Awe of Ahda'Kaz

The storm was coming. Bigger than any of the Alliance members have ever seen. Bigger than some of the Terra’kan have ever seen. The entire travelling group stood there, stupefied as to what could be done.

Of all people, Kip SalvoKip Salvo remembered during his latest night of revelry, which happened to be last night, he discussed some survival techniques with the local ‘Kan at Fe’ree Hold, one of which was particularly relevant. They could use the lee side of the mountain for a natural protection from sandstorms.

How did Taima and his people not realize this?

With that, the group rushed to the nearest sand dune and started setting up their tents. Crix Vane and Kos, the Tarnished paired up to erect their tent together, and got done surprisingly fast. M@-33 and Kip chose to take a slower, steadier approach. Worried that they were constructing it poorly and slowly, Kip put his trust into M@ and pushed on.

Kip and M@ barely have enough time to rush inside the finished tent. The storm hit. It hit hard. As they exit, relieved that the tent held, they notice there were only mere scraps of fabric strewn about where Kos and Crix setup theirs.

The two were nowhere to be seen.

All but Kos and Crix started to realize they were being surrounded by a familiar people: more Terra’kan. These were of another Hold, the Jar’yun Hold. While Taima and Kar’deen, the Shal of the Jar’yun begin to talk, M@ is able to find Kos and Crix buried under two feet of sand. They did not do as good of a job building their tent as they thought.

Relieved to be out in the fresh air, Crix grabs for some water and rinses his mouth out. He then spits the water onto the ground.

The entire camp goes quiet.

Kar’deen flies into a rage, berating Taima for allowing these weak outlanders to travel with them, much less take them to the Ha’keem in Ahda’kaz. He insists that the Alliance group are not only worthy, but are outright disrespectful to the traditions of the Terra’kan, and thus, the ’Kan themselves.

M@, trying to rectify the apparent tragedy, collects Crix’s spit from the ground, places the soon to be dried up mud into a test tube, and approaches the standoff between Kar’deen and Taima. This seems to create an uneasy and temporary peace between the ‘Kan of Fe’ree and Jar’yun.

The Fe’ree, along with the Rebels, press on with the Jar’yun following close behind. During the next few days, Kip talks with Taima trying to learn more about the Raza. Only the ’Kan can initiate the sacred duel, and Kip should be aware that he will be tested by those wanting to show the strength of the ’Kan against such weak Outlanders.

Meanwhile, Kos approaches Myski in attempt to learn more about the politics and function of the Terra’kan’s hierarchy. He learns that there are many Holds across the desert, each with one Shal and one Hold Mistress. The Shal comes to power through the right of Raza, and appoints his own Hold Mistress. Trying to press to learn more of the intricacies, Kos was fed up with Myski’s condescension and left the conversation alone.

On the fifth day of travels, Taima looks up and exclaims:

“We are here. Ahda’Kaz.”

At the entrance, the Jar’yun are left to wait to allow Taima, the Rebels, and the rest of Fe’ree to enter Ahda’Kaz. They learned only one group of Terra’kan may enter at any one time. Other groups are allowed to enter, permitted the Ha’keem feel there will be no violence between the two.

They descend into a valley, where they notice half of the cliff face looks to have doors carved into the wall. On the other side, are slopes with more permanent looking tents set up. There also seems to be a fairly large group of terraces used for agriculture. There may even be a hint of green.

Taima leaves the group to talk with the Ha’keem, instructing the Alliance soldiers to stay close to Myski. While the core group are refilling their leather bladders, Kip notices two strange things. The first is a matte black solid being collected high up on the valley with a bucket. When asked what they were doing, Myski became very defensive and angered that an Outlander would even ask that. It is not to be known!

The second odd occurrence is the material of the rock wall where the doors were carved into. Upon second glance, it even looked somewhat familiar. M@ casually gathered a sample of the wall and analyzed it. It seemed to be of spaceship grade metal. Not something usually found in deserts like this.

Taima eventually returns alerting everyone that the Ha’keem are ready. Kos, Kip, Crix, Buurski, and M@ enter a room immediately getting a pungent smell of must and incense. In the middle of the roof was a circle, where the light shone through, creating a circle of light in the middle of the room. There were 7 elderly women sitting at the far side. One sat higher than the others. This one is named Madji.

Others were there, some just bystanders. Kar’Deen sat off in the corner, hoping for the death sentence of the Outlanders.

She asked of the group what their intentions were. Madji specifically was interested in Kip and his answers. She asked Kip if he knew what to be ’Kan meant, and was dissatisfied with his stock answer of strength, honor, and wisdom.

Madji went to confer with the rest of the Ha’keem and came back to ask the group if they were truly connected with the source.

Kos walked to a sickly, coughing man, reached out to the Mist and healed him in front of everyone. The ground began to rumble, but just as sudden, began to calm down. This seemed appease Madji.

Kar’deen, unhappy with the groups parlor tricks, demands Raza against the Outlanders, one by one. Taima steps in and insists that Kar’deen is too scared to fight Taima. Madji quickly puts a stop to the bickering and empties the room.

With only Madji sitting in front of Buurski, M@, Kos, Kip, and Crix she delves into some the secrets of the Terra’kan, elucidating why the Alliance mining is so detrimental to their way of life.

The spice, Fala, can be mixed with that black substance the Rebels noticed being collected earlier, Ur’fala. This can then be brewed down and drank in a ritual all ’Kan must enter, The Joining.

This allows all of the ’Kan to literally be one, essentially a hive mind. Without the Fala, the children of the ’Kan cannot participate in this ritual. Their way of life would die out quickly.

After Kip assures Madji that they will stop the mining in hopes of coexistence, Madji relays a prophecy to the group.

Someone is to come to the Terra’kan and deliver them from the desert to a better place. Could this be Kip?

She gives the party back over to Taima who leads them to one of the doors carved into the cliff made of some foreign metal. The group sees that a hallway leads to darkness and asks Taima if he could lead them down it to look around.

The Team had finally found the Terra’kan and after the attack by the source (the giant underground desert worms) the entire Terra’kan group had departed for a safer location, bringing Buurski, Crix Vane, Kip Salvo, Kos, the Tarnished, and M@-33 along with them. They all traveled by night to avoid the desert heat, with the Terra’kan clearly being more adept at traveling across the grueling sand whereas the group of Rebels struggled, at times, to traverse the soft ground. One such Terra’kan, a young man named Mohkno, found extra delight in taunting the Rebels as he would periodically effortlessly skate by and flash a dirty look their way or spout off a jab at them. In fact, the group noticed that most of the Terra’kan seemed to look at them with dismay whenever one of the Rebels would happen to catch one of the Terra’kan looking at him.

As the group foraged ahead they began to see a glimmer of light on the horizon as night turned to dawn. Buurski, who of the Rebels seemed to have the least trouble making his way through the desert, pushed ahead to speak with the Terra’kan’s presumed leader, Taima, whom he had saved from the source earlier before their departure. Buurski asked Taima where they were going and why, and Taima responded by motioning that their destination was just a short distance ahead, a stronghold called “Feree Hold”. He told Buurski that they would have been there by now had it not been for the slow pace of his companions, and that the rest of the Terra’kan were frustrated because they felt they were being held back by having to travel with the Rebels. He told Buurski that it was there that the Terra’kan would have a discussion on whether to continue on with the Rebels or to leave them behind.

A short time later, which was fortunate since the sun had now peered over the horizon and the desert heat was beginning to become unbearable, the Terra’kan began entering an opening in the ground one at a time. The entrance was so small that the Rebels had no doubt they would have walked right past it had they not been traveling with the Terra’kan. Once inside, they were relieved to see the walkway and halls were made of stone, and it felt great to move along solid ground once again. The halls were illuminated by small lips that protruded along the walls with blue light radiating from within, and Kip investigated one such fixture to find that the blue light was emanating from stones that were hot to the touch. Too hot to hold, in fact, as Crix would find out after he tried to pick one up.

As they reached the end of the tunnel they all entered a large open room filled with Terra’kan, both those they had traveled with and others that had already been at the stronghold. As the Rebels looked around they noticed all the Terra’kan they had traveled with were wiping themselves down with clean, damp cloths. Assuming this was some kind of ritual, and wanting to respect their cultures, Buurski started to wipe himself down as well but, without having a cloth to use and using the underside of his cloak, he was getting raised eyebrows from some of the Terra’kan but they did seem to notice the effort he was making approvingly. Buurski motioned at the rest to follow suit, and they did, however Kip noticed Mohkno was nearby and since a clean cloth had not been handed out to the Rebels, Kip yanked the cloth that had been given to Mohkno out of Mohkno’s hands, which prompted them to immediately engage in a shouting match with one another. It was only a moment before Taima ended the argument with the booming sound of his raised voice.

After the altercation had ended, Taima went back to a discussion he had been having with an elderly woman. Buurski wandered over and Taima introduced him to the woman, whose name was Rosme’. Rosme’ referred to Taima as “Sha’al”, which Buurski assumed was a title, and informed him that she was the leader of Feree Hold. The spoke for a few moments and then Taima escorted the Rebels to an adjacent room where he said they would dine that evening. As they sat, much of the tension began to lift as everyone was enjoying their meals. Kip was sat next to a pretty young woman named Misky and they hit it off right away. Just a couple seats down, Crix was doing his best to hold off the advances of an older woman, without much success. As they ate, Kip realized that he was very thirsty yet there was no water in front of him. He mentioned something to Misky and she laughed as she grabbed pitched with a cloudy liquid inside and began to pour it in to his cup. The liquid, she explained was milk of the Ke’Ya (their presumed mounts), and Kip found it to be quite bitter but he drank it to quench his thirst, nonetheless.

As the plates began to clear, Buurski opened a dialogue with Taima, who was sitting directly across the round table from the Rebels, and asked where they would be going from here. Taima responded by asking if the Rebels knew what “Terra’kan” actually meant. They did not, and he told them the literal translation was “those who are of the desert”. So, he explained, that is why the presence of the Tierfon Outpost was so invasive to him and his people. Their incessant drilling and digging was affecting them at a much deeper level than the Rebels could possibly imagine. He told them that the Tierfon Outpost was actually built upon “Dory’s Spring”, and that when the Rebels first arrived the Terra’kan elders voted to allow the construction and watched, unbeknownst to the Rebels, as the Outpost was built and did not interfere with the construction. The elders had thought the Rebels’ presence would add security to Tierfon however, it turns out, they were wrong. The Rebels had been destructive, and had been drilling in to the heart of the desert and stealing its precious resources and prohibited one of the greatest sources of water in Dory’s Spring from reaching the Terra’kan.

The Rebels responded, in turn, by relaying to Sha’al Taima and the rest of the Terra’kan seated at the table that while they were of the Rebellion, they were not of the Tierfon Outpost, and that they wanted to get to the bottom of everything that was being done at the Outpost as much as the Terra’kan did. Taima took the Rebels to a room behind the dining area where there were several sacks piled high, and revealed that the contents of the sacks was the same as the spice the Rebels had been drilling for. Taima would not reveal to the Rebels what the Terra’kan used the spice for, but he did tell them that they acquired it simply by sifting the air and the sand to separate the spice out. Taima concluded by telling the Rebels he believed that they were different and they wanted to help, and that he had decided to take them to meet with the Terra’kan elders, the Ha’Kam. He told them they would depart the next day and that, for now, he needed them to rest and stay out of any conflicts.

The Rebels dispersed and Buurski left the group to meditate near the entrance to the stronghold and reflect on everything he had learned. It was there that Buurski was somewhat started by a voice behind him, and he turned to find Rosme’ standing there. Buurski asked her several questions about the Source and the relationship it holds with the desert and with the Terra’kon. He asked if the Source was attracted by the Force, to which Rosme’ told him that no one knew what attracted the Source. She did tell him about the legend of a man named Jake Corrall, who was said to have not only been able to tame the Source but to even ride the Source as a mount… but she said this was long ago and that no one really knows the truth of the legend any longer.

As Kip and Crix wandered the halls they were confronted by a few Terra’kan, one of which being Mohkno. He began to pick at both of the Rebels and then really started to hone in on Kip Salvo, with the two of them throwing multiple jabs back and forth as the confrontation began to quickly escalate. Eventually Kip’s words became too much for Mohkno and he challenged Kip to a (name?). Kip accepted without knowing what it was, and Mohkno told him they would engage in (name?) in 2 hours and he stormed off with his entourage. Buurski, Rasme’, and Taima had been attracted by the attention and Kip turned to find Taima’s face reddened as he explained to Kip that Kip had just accepted Mohkno’s challenge for them to duel… to the death. Taima explained that this was a sacred ritual, and that the combatants could only use a ceremonial dagger which Taima produced from his waste and handed to Kip, telling Kip that he could use Taima’s for the duel.

Kip and Mohkno met in a circular arena outside of the stronghold 2 hours later. Kip was a bit nervous since he was not familiar with the weapon he held in his hand, but knew he had a trick or two up his sleeve. The opening ritual completed and Mohkno did not waste any time, immediately lunging towards Kip with the blade outstretched right at Kip’s throat. Kip manages to dodge the swipe enough to keep Mohkno from slitting his throat, but the blade still connects and Kip found himself injured mere seconds in to the duel. A split second later, while Mohkno’s hand was still at neck-level on Kip, Kip reached within himself and gathered all of his hatred and anger he felt towards Mohkno into a ball of fire and imagined that ball of fire had set Mohkno’s hand ablaze. Mohkno immediately let out a yelp and dropped the blade on the sand, grimacing at the sudden searing pain he felt in his hand. He lashed out at Kip once again, this time firmly kicking Kip in the ribs with a skilled move that proved Mohkno was a more than formidable and deadly opponent, even without a blade in his hand. Kip reached down to grab the blade Mohkno had dropped and yelled out in a fit of rage as he pounced on top of Mohkno, driving both blades in to Mohkno’s gut and then ripping outwards with both hands. Mohkno ’s arms fell to his side and his whole body went limp. He would never move again.

The Terra’kon looked on at the result, shocked looks on their faces, yet the Rebels noticed that the eyes of the Terra’kon indicated there was more going on than the bloody scene in the middle of the room. Buurski reached out with the Force to a nearby Terra’kon and could hear him thinking… “The Source comes”… and Buurski yelled out to Kip to leave the arena immediately. It was only a few seconds later when the ground was rumbling so violently that many of the Terra’kon were losing their balance and falling over, and then suddenly a giant worm burst through the sand. The area had been cleared, however the worm was massive and could have easily consumed everyone observing the duel if they had still been in place. Everyone ushered back inside, where the solid stone floors would shield them from another burst if it came.

Once inside Kip handed both blades to Taima, both still covered in Mohkno’s blood, and Taima handed one back to Kip. He told Kip that Kip had earned the right to carry the blade, and that he had earned the respect of the Terra’kon at the Feree Hold, but that if other Terra’kon saw the blade on Kip’s hip he could expect more confrontations. He then told the Rebels to gather their belongings, that it was time to go. On the way out, Buurski went to Rosme’ to thank her for her hospitality and to apologize for the bloodshed. She responded by telling him that the desert was no place for the weak, and that Mohkno’s fate was his own doing. Just outside the stronghold the Rebels saw the Terra’kon loading up gear on the backs of two large, odd-looking animals… adult versions of the animal they had trapped a day prior. It was not long before the Rebels, along with a contingent of Terra’kon lead by Sha’al Taima, were on their way to see the Ha’Kam.

A few hours in to the journey the Rebels began to notice a commotion amongst the Terra’kon as they all started to look back the way they came. The Rebels, in response, looked back as well and were shocked to see a wall of tan and grey off in the distance, approaching them at a deadly pace…

After meeting the leadership of the Tierfon Outpost, and uncovering some potentially disturbing information on the state of the Outpost and how it is being run, the Team decided to head into a nearby town with the Head of Security, Lorn Tull, to do some recruiting for the rebellion.

M@-33 noticed a group of young men ogling over some guns at a gun shack and convinced them that, if they like guns, they aught to join the rebellion. The group then looked around and saw a nearby Noodle House and decided that might be a good place to do some recruiting. M@ saw a group of teens sitting at a table so he ordered some noodles and went over to sit with them. Buurski awkwardly invited himself to join a table where a group of mean who looked to be in their 20’s were enjoying their meals. Crix Vane went to console a “damsel in distress” and quickly realized he had made an error in judgement when she became creepily clingy in her efforts to make one of the young men at M@’s table jealous. In the end, the Team ended up leaving the Noodle House with a dozen new recruits whom they sent back with Lorn Tull to the Outpost to begin their training.

As the group continued their walk-through of the town, hey noticed that they were being tailed by 3 men. Kos, the Tarnished wandered to a fruit stand near where the 3 men were loitering, with Buurski in tow. Once they were close enough, Buurski reached out gently with the Force to see if he could uncover any information about their intentions by reading the thoughts of one of the men. Buurski is able to make out a couple random thoughts… “Teemo”… “Don’t let them make a deal”… and both he and Kos head back to the group where Buurski tells the others what he “heard”. Kip Salvo approached the men and used his powers to influence them into listening to him. The men end up revealing to him that they were sent by Teemo and that one of the Rebels had made some kind of deal with Teemo. The men didn’t know anything else beyond that, however Kip told them to relay a message back to Teemo (who Kip knew) that Kip wanted to speak with him and the men left.

As the group was discussing where to go next, they received a distress call from the outpost notifying them that a skipper had been shot down nearby and they needed to head over and rescue the crew. The team followed the transponder code of the skipper and were able to hone in on its location in the desert. They arrived to find it in the center of a bowl, however the group found it very odd that there were no indications that it had been shot down. The group descended from their transport and spoke with the crew, who had hunkered down behind cover near the skipper, to find out that they were under attack by some kind of indigenous race and that they were not here because they had crashed, but that this location was actually where their mission was.

The group looked around to see several machines positioned around the perimeter, and could see glints of metal beyond them which flashed off the weapons of the attackers from the light of the sun. The crew members informed the team that the machines were actually miners, which were drilling to get ore out of the ground. There were 10 miners spread around the skipper and they needed to get as many as they could back on board the skipper before they departed. M@ proceeded to the nearest miner and is able to set the repulsion on the miner to send it straight back to the skipper. Buurski tries to muscle one of the miners back to the skipper but the miner breaks, revealing a strange powdery substance inside, and is attacked by one of the masked assailants. Buurski takes a wound but retaliates by quickly running the attacker through with his vibrosword and readies himself for the next attack. Kos also attempted to move a miner but is quickly attacked as well. He binded his assailant and removes the mask to find a human woman underneath. The rest of the attacking group stops as it turns out Kos had immobilized their leader. Kos released her, without harming her, and convinced her to make her troops stop attacking. She reveals to Kos that they were attacking to defend their land and the substance that the miners had been drilling for, which was not ore after all, and they left. The Team, too, decided it was time to depart so they headed back to their shuttle. Buurski had taken a sample of the substance that fell from his miner and gave it to M@ for analysis once they were onboard the transport. As they departed, they looked down to see a pale cylindrical form that was about 300m long breach the sand’s surface and disappear back in to the sand.

Upon analysis of the substance, M@ determined that the substance had to be some sort of hallucinogen and the group begins to piece together some illegal activity that could possible be occurring at the Outpost…

With the Nimble Mind destroyed and no ship currently available to assign them to, Brigadier General Antares decided to send the Team to reinforce the Tierfon Outpost, on Expansion Region planet Tierfon. The base is located in a pocket of the Grand Teraah Desert, located near one of the few oasis in the desert, sheltered in a rocky cliffside. It is a starfighter base that has lost most of its veteran soldiers and needs direction. Antares promoted all Team members to the rank of CAPT, and 1LT to Raaraa and Crix. He also gave them all the ability to requisition two aids apiece.

Now that the Team had successfully infiltrated the Bakura Imperial Prison, they needed to find a way to overcome the large contingent of Imperials aboard the craft as well as locate and free both Dan Sear’s parents and any other high value prisoners they could locate within the prison. In order to do that, M@-33, Gand, Raara, and Dan Sear had identified some of the gangs and their leaders and needed to convince them to help them overtake the guards.

M@ and Sear opted to try to recruit Garm Barez, the leader of the Twin Suns Gang comprised of former military… Raara sought out Lilly, the leader of the Bloody Cutters which was fully comprised of females and they were not friendly to members of the opposite sex… and Kos tracked down Koro, the leader of an exclusively Gand gang called the Clickers. All were successful through their different tactics in convincing their respective gang leaders to have their gangs back the Team’s overthrowing of the prison.

Crix Vane had escaped from his torture chamber and continued his pursuit of Dan Sear’s parents which he knew were in a nearby prisoner holding cell. As he tried to sneak through the halls he was noticed by a janitor, who turned out to be quite skilled in mop-based combat as they exchanged several blows until Crix finally arose victorious (though not without suffering several injuries along the way). Cris took the janitor’s uniform and keys and was able to access the holding cell and matched two of the prisoners inside to the photo he had on his data pad of Sear’s parents. Unfortunately, Crix’s advances through the South wing did not go unnoticed…

Suddenly the Team in the mess hall heard alarms blaring through the intercom system with notifications of a possible threat in the prisoner holding area. The Team no longer had the element of surprise and they were out of time to formulate a plan. Sear knew he needed a diversion immediately and he instructed Barez to punch him in the face… which Barez did, with exceedingly excessive force, and from there a brawl in the mess hall broke out. The Imperials were out-numbered by the Twin Suns so they called in for reinforcements from the Admin Center and the Team used the chaos to make their way to the Admin Center. Unfortunately, Sear had inadvertently engaged the wrong gang with the imperials back at the cafeteria since the Twin Suns would have offered a tactical advantage when infiltrating the center, but time had run out so they had to take their chances with the Bloody Cutters.

Amidst the commotion, Kos had been able to slip away with the Clickers, Ro’Ye, and Kilo to head towards solitary confinement to search if there were any allies there. They had previously identified one prisoner who stood out, and once in the solitary confinement area Kos was able to use a terminal to determine that prisoner was Daro. He masterly picked the very intricate and high-security lock and Daro’s cell and he and Kilo were aghast to find a beaten and tortured shell of a man who only slightly resembled Daro anymore after everything the Empire had put him through. Kos did his best to heal Daro’s wounds and then checked the manifest to see if there were any other prisoners worth saving. The only other name listed was that of Seki-Seki, a Nautolan who clearly had no love for the Empire based on her impressive body count. He was able to quickly free her as well and was more than willing to go with them once Kos told her she would get to kill Imperials if she came along.

M@, Sear, Raara, and the Bloody Cutters were now inside the Admin Center and they were putting a number on the Imperials still contained within. M@ unleashed the Bloody Cutters on the Imperials just as Kos and his group entered the Admin Center. M@ found a nearby terminal and jacked in. He was able to disable the gravitational stabilizer on the station, but Kos had to step in to re-route the fall of the station so that instead of hurling towards Bakura it was now floating towards a nearby moon. The group had an hour to get Sears’ parents and get off the ship or else they would have all perished in the crash.

As Kos surveyed the Admin Center he noticed the Garm Barez had not yet joined them and he knew he was compelled to go back and save Barez, if he was even still alive. Kos re-entered the cafeteria to find Barez and a hand full of the Twin Suns making their last stand behind a stack of tables in the corner of the room as the Imperials advanced. Kos quickly sprung into action as opened his attack with a ferocious Force harm on a cluster of Imperials. Kos, along with cover fire from the Twin Suns, took out all of the remaining Imperials and they made their way back to the Admin Center.

The Bloody Cutters’ blood-lust turned out to be much higher than anyone had anticipated, however, and the blood shed was quickly getting out of hand. Since the Cutters did not view M@ as a man, and therefore were willing to follow his command, Sear pleaded with M@ to get the Cutters under control… and M@ was about to do so until the Station’s Lieutenant pulled a weapon on M@ and M@ began to “Error”. M@’s photoreceptors turned red and the next thing Sear knew the majority of the back of the lieutenant’s head was against the wall and M@ was firing a gun protruding from his forearm at any remaining living Imperials inside the Admin Center. Between M@ and the Cutters, the scene was a massacre.

Crix had managed to disguise himself amongst the prisoners in the holding cell until a Stromtrooper came in and then he sprung in to action. He took out the Trooper, and then stripped him down and disguised himself in the Trooper’s armor, handing the Trooper’s stun gun to a burly looking prisoner in the holding cell with him. When another Trooper came in he managed to convince the other Trooper that he had orders to escort all of the prisoners to the Hangar Bay for immediate transport off of the station due because the prison was under attack. The only route from there to the Hangar Bay was through the Admin Center and none of them could believe the horror which befell their eyes when the doors slid open.

The Cutters were all frenzied with the taste of blood and they took immediately notice of the three Imperial Stormtroopers (one of them being a disguised Crix) escorting a string of prisoners when the doors opened. Sear caught the eyes of his parents only briefly before seeing the flashes of the Cutters running towards the group, and despite his shouts to yield none of the Cutters slowed their advance. The Cutters began to rip apart the two forward Stormtroopers, causing Crix to remove his helmet to reveal that he was not an Imperials, prisoner with the stun gun bravely pulled his weapon and advanced towards the group, essentially sacrificing himself for the rest of the prisoners as they fled back into the holding area in terror. Crix grabbed hold of Sears’ parents though, and ran towards the entry to the Admin Center to make way towards the Hangar Bay.

The Team knew they were almost out of time and they made their way as quickly as they could towards the Hangar Bay. They highjacked a ship and boarded, along with Sear’s parents, Daro, Kilo, Ro’Ye, Garm Barez, Seki-Seki, and all of the Clickers, to make their escape from the prison. They had escaped just in time to witness the Bakura Imperial Prison explode on the surface of the moon.

The Team fled N’zoth incredulous of their discovery of the Sith temple and the encounter within, weary of their reunion with Kip Salvo, and stupefied after witnessing the destruction of the Nimble Mind. The myriad emotions had to wait, however, as the Sequorian I (piloted by Karreal Case (Lt, RA), with Gand and Raara as crew), the Gyft (piloted by Kip, with Dan Sear and Crix Vane manning the guns), and FAE (with M@-33 latched on tight) were all being pursued by a host of TIE Fighters. FAE veered off and fired the first shots of the encounter, as she destroys one TIE, and M@ assisted her by locating a bad motivator in another TIE and causing it to clip another TIE as it went down. Kos was able to slice into a cluster of TIE Fighters and lower their shields, opening a window for Dan Sear to fire upon the cluster and destroy several of the Fighters. The TIE Fighters were able to regroup, though, and they targeted their initial volley at the Gyft land the destruction left it powerless and floating through space. The TIEs then focus fire on the Sequorian and on FAE, with the Sequorian able to barely withstand the damage taken, but FAE is left incapacitated by a uniquely shaped TIE Fighter with curved wings.

The Team regrouped, knowing they were no match for the TIE Fighters, and determined immediate retreat was their only viable option. Kip frustratingly slammed his hands on the power controls of the Gyft and suddenly she jumped back to life, while M@ was able to get FAE back online and tap into the M@ Hive Mind to plot a course for the group to take out of the engagement. Since FAE was not equipped with a hyperdrive, she piloted herself over to the Gyft to latch on to the Gyft’s harness to be carried by the Gyft’s hyperdrive. Crix exited the Gyft to attempt to secure FAE into the harness, however he accidentally hit the emergency release and the entire harness, with FAE already attached, detached from the Gyft and began to float away from the Gyft. Kip saw the mishap and quickly navigate the Gyft back in to position over FAE and Dan Sear was able to assist Crix in getting both the harness and FAE securely fastened to the Gyft. As soon as everyone was locked in to place the Sequorian and the Gyft jumped to light speed and headed towards the Borealis system.

Once the Team left hyperspace they all gathered together on the Gyft to determine their plan of action. So far they had not had any luck locating Dan Sear’s parents and they knew they were running out of town. Dan Sear was at a loss, however Kip had linked with Sear while at the SIth Temple so he had an idea that he could try to tap back in to Sear’s mind and see if he could uncover any clues. With Sear’s permission, Kip searched Sear’s mind and found information on the Bakura Imperial prison which was nearby and the only place the Empire could have taken Sear’s parents.

Before deciding on their next move, the Team knew they needed to comm General Tantor to let him know about the destruction of the Nimble Mind and inform him of their current mission to rescue Dan Sear’s parents. General Tantor asked for the coordinates of the Nimble Mind’s remains so that he could send a team out to search for survivors or salvageable materials. He then requested the Team to report back to him at Polas Massa Base, but Kos told him they had something they needed to do first before reporting back and then ended the link.

M@-33 did an intel search to learn more about the Bakura Imperial Prison and the team is dismayed to learn that it is a heavily guarded prison with few infiltration options; none of those options being particularly realistic without being discovered. Additionally, they learned that this prison was a location the Imperials used to detain political persons and conduct interrogations. They discussed the potential for freeing additional assets from the prison as part of the rescue mission to find Sear’s parents. Due to this new information, the team decided that perhaps a mission of this level of import should be planned out and coordinated more carefully and returning to Polas Massa for reinforcements was the best move at that time. Just as they all settled on this decision, the Team heard the roar of the Sequorian’s engines and are able to glimpse out the window of the Gyft just in time to see it start to head in the direction of Bakura. They looked around and were unsurprised to find that Dan Sear was no longer aboard the Gyft. Kos quickly comm’d in to the Sequorian to try to intercept Kane and have her stop Dan Sear, but instead he heard Dan Sear’s voice on the other end condescendingly assure Kos that he had the situation under control before he cut off communications and the team watched in dismay as the Sequorian jumped to light speed and was gone.

The rest of the Team stood there momentarily in disbelief until Kos furiously proclaimed he wanted to try to beat the Sequorian to Bakura to avoid a potential disaster. The Gyft jumped to light speed but, even though it was able to stealthily drop out of hyperspace, they were unable to arrive before the Sequorian. Sear broadcasted his approach to the Gyft but the Gyft was not currently in any shape to take that course towards the prison without detection. M@ quickly got to work and was able to repair much of the damage and was also able to spruce up the ship’s heat dampeners to a point where it reduced the ship’s heat signature off the Imperial radars. They surveyed the station and were only able to identify two landing points, the landing bay or an exhaust port. The Team decides to attempt the exhaust port since the landing bay was crawling with Imperials. Since the Gyft would be too large to fit through the port, they all decided to latch themselves to FAE and make their way towards the station, because every time they latched themselves to FAE in the past it worked out exactly as they planned and nothing ever went wrong.

Unfortunately, as they navigated towards the port they are noticed by a group of TIEs on patrol. Kos was able to convince the TIEs that FAE and the group were not hostiles, that they were just doing a drill, but the result was that the TIEs offered to escort them back to the landing bay and the group had no choice but to allow the TIEs to do so. They had avoided the space battle, but they had an inevitable confrontation ahead of them at the landing bay and they were scrambling to come up with a plan to get out of it in one piece.

The diversion created by FAE had opened up a clear lane to the loading bay for the Sequorian and Dan Sear and he was able to recognize the pickle the Gyft crew had gotten themselves into. He made a quick attack plan with Karreal Case (Lt, RA) and he donned a suit and propelled himself, outside of the Sequorian, towards the prison. While he was inbound, Case fired off several shots and destroyed a couple TIEs before Case immediately hit the hyperdrive on the Sequorian and shot away at light speed before the imperials could react. Sear had undershot the opening of the bay and was clinging to side of the base, while the rest of the team used the chaos to scatter and avoid detection. M@ wandered off towards the security checkpoint, where a confused Crix hurried after him, and the rest of the team made their way towards the barracks in hopes of finding some gear to disguise themselves with. Ultimately, Sears pulls himself up the side of the station and is able to glimpse the teammates heading towards the barracks so he decides to rendezvous with them there.

Now at the security checkpoint, M@ convinced the guard that he was there to update the prison’s systems. He jacked in to the terminal but completely failed in his attempts to hack the system and the entire system crashed, causing the guard to take notice that something didn’t seem right. Now under more pressure, M@ convinced the guard he needed more time and that the shutdown was normal during an update. Crix inadvertently created a distraction for M@ as he tried to stealth his way in to the security checkpoint but he is made and all the guards trained their weapons on him. Crix raised his arms to signal that he surrendered, but one overzealous guard tells him to “stop resisting” and then bashed Crix over the head with the butt of his rifle. Crix was then handcuffed and taken deeper into the prison while M@ continued to work furiously at hacking the system.

As Kos entered the barracks his bad luck continued as he was immediately confronted by four stormtroopers. Kos looked around and saw that no one else in the barracks was paying attention to the confrontation so he held out his arm that wasn’t missing a hand and tapped in to the Force and all four of them fell like rag dolls never, hearts stopped. Raara entered the barracks at that time and two stormtroopers outside the barracks were able to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be four stormtroopers laying lifeless on the ground inside the barracks, but Raara quickly convinced them that those troopers were just sleeping off a long night of drinking. Kip, who was just outside of the barracks, sees a cluster of stormtroopers heading towards the barracks but he intercepted them and send them back to the hangar bay to check on the attack that had just occurred. The stormtroopers ran off and Kip made his way into the barracks.

Finally, Dan Sear entered the barracks where he was quickly attacked by a furious Kos. Kos swept Sear’s legs out from under him and plunged the blade of his lightsaber pike through the floor right next to Sear’s head. He made it clear to Sear that if he pulled any more stunts Kos would not hesitate to take Sear’s life. Sear indicated he understood, but that what was done was done and now they needed to work together if they were going to make it out of there. Kos pulled back his lightsaber pike, everyone in the barracks grabbed imperial gear to disguise themselves, and they started discussing a plan…